Richard Dale is venture partner at Sigma Partners, and is a member of the WordStream Board of Directors.

Richard joined Sigma Partners in 2000, bringing to the firm 16 prior years experience founding and running software companies. His proven leadership abilities combined with deep technical and operational expertise provide a platform to advise entrepreneurs in building solid technology companies. At Sigma, Richard focuses on opportunities in the areas of infrastructure software and security technologies. He also seeks and supports opportunities in vertical industry software, especially in compliance, health and pharmaceutical arenas.

Before Sigma, Richard co-founded Phase Forward Inc. (NASDAQ: PFWD), a leading provider of service and software infrastructure for managing pharmaceutical clinical trials over the Internet. At Phase Forward, Richard also served as the Vice President of Services and the Vice President of Strategic Development. Prior to Phase Forward, Richard was Vice President of Operations for Vermeer Technologies, creators of FrontPage, a popular website authoring tool that was acquired by Microsoft Corporation in 1996. Prior to Vermeer, Richard held roles in professional services management, senior product management and IS management at some of industry’s best technology companies including Epoch Systems (acquired by EMC), Sybase, MicroTouch Systems and SQL Solutions. Richard has also provided early stage advice and consulting to Vignette, FirstSense, OnDisplay and QXL.com.

Richard received a bachelors of arts degree in mathematics from the University of Durham in England.